After 10 Years of What Not To Wear, Stacy London's Most Meaningful Realizations

Hold onto your blazers, ladies: The final season of What Not to Wear premieres August 9th on TLC. We talked to the show's co-host about the decade-long makeover show that changed so many women's lives—including hers.

Well, What Not To Wear lasted past a whole genre of makeover shows, and I think the main reason for that was that it was it was never about the clothes. What it really came down to was the idea that change is possible—and that it is not irresponsible to be hopeful about taking control of your destiny. That's the legacy I hope the show leaves. I talked a lot about this idea in my book, The Truth About Style,—the cliché "seeing is believing" was really at the foundation of the show. Seeing allows you to feel something different, which allows you to think something different, which allows you to believe something different. That's what the show was about: a change in perspective, a turn to lean in towards optimism. A lot of women didn't even see that they had resigned themselves.

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That was always so amazing to see. Sometimes someone would go into the makeover not acknowledging that how they dressed was a response to problems that they had with their bodies, or where they were in life, and they would discover it, and then get over it in like a week.

I think you bring up a very important point—the idea that we don't recognize our own patterns of behavior. The great thing about the show was that we were able to very quickly ascertain why somebody did or didn't do something. If we continued to ask why, and somebody answered "Well, I don't know," or "I don't care," but we pressed them for answers, eventually, we got some truth as to whether or not that person was self-aware. I think that holds true for life, but on the show, it was clearly a way forward that proved to be very powerful. The more you ask somebody why they dress the way they dress, the more whatever they're hiding either from other people or themselves becomes apparent.

Do you have a favorite makeover from all these years?

You know, I don't! I've been asked that question so many times, and the reason that's so hard for me is that over 10 years, I can't tell you how much I've learned from the people that I've worked with. I've recognized my own fears and insecurities mirrored in some of these women. I'm stronger and more confident because of working with them. So to say that any one of them was a favorite just because it was an extreme difference, or something like that is almost a superficial thing. They've all contributed so much to my own evolution and growth.

What's the most important thing you've learned from doing the show?

My capacity for compassion and empathy has grown so much. And my understanding of my own attraction to fashion, what drew me to the industry, what I needed from it, why it was fulfilling in terms of my own self-esteem and sense of identity—it all became so much clearer from working with women who didn't necessarily have an interest in fashion. So much more so than from working at a magazine or going to a fashion show or meeting Galliano or Karl Lagerfeld or anything like that, because you start to understand how personal style certainly plays into our sense of identity. You can say, "I'm a good person," or "I'm a strong person," or "I want to do whatever in the world," but sometimes what we want to say and what we end up saying is different. I learned all of that while coaching on the show. I have this incredible tai chi instructor, and one of the smartest things he ever said to me was, "we teach what we need to learn." That's so much of what this whole era has been for me. My entire thirties was this show. In a lot of ways, it helped me become the person that I am.

Again and again over the last decade, the women getting makeovers were the most giving people that they knew, and just weren't spending time giving to themselves.

I am definitely guilty of the same mistake, and I don't know that it's so easy to fix. There are a lot of reasons, I think, that women in general deflect from taking care of themselves. It can be a silent cry for somebody else to take care of them; it can be because they don't think they're worth it. And by the same token, we make a lot of excuses not to take care of ourselves. Taking care of yourself involves a great deal of responsibility, and sometimes it feels easier to take care of others. It's a trap that I think women fall into because stereotypically, we're meant to be the caregivers. And women in general feel guilty because they think, "If I'm taking time for myself, that's less time for my children." That whole perspective really needs to be turned on its head. You want to foster the concept of being responsible for oneself; you want to be a role model of independence for your children and your spouse.

In terms of styling, what's an easy-to-correct mistake you saw over and over again?

If you're holding on to clothes from high school just because you can fit in them, throw those out right now! Keeping styles that no longer reflect who you are is denying that you've evolved. There is an expiration date on wearing things that are either falling apart, or that just speak to another time in your life. We're all afraid of change, and sometimes that stops us from finding a look or a style that really speaks much better to who we are now.

Did any of the women getting makeovers teach you something about style?

Yeah. There are those women who I call "free spirits"—the ones who are really dressing in a way that's so out there. We always asked them to consider whether or not the attention that they got from dressing just like Little Edie from Grey Gardens was helping them out in the real world, because that's a practical consideration. But I have learned that you never want to stomp on that kind of spirit. What you get from your wardrobe is really two-fold: there's utility and there's joy. There are so many women who are intimidated by fashion as an industry, as an idea, that to create a sense that style that brings you joy—that's so important.

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There isn't one right way to dress.

There is one way when you talk about the science of style. I have a company called Style for Hire, and I train stylists in all of the ideology that I learned, collected, and formed over the last 10 years. There is a science to understanding and analyzing your body type to find clothes that are going to best flatter your figure, but that doesn't take away from the artistry of style. You should choose things that bring you joy, whether it comes from the color, embroidery, shoes, accessories, whatever it is.

What's one item in your own wardrobe that you can't live without?

This season I'm wicked into jumpsuits. I'm all about a onesie. Maybe it's because I'm old and tired! It's like my new suit.

What Not to Wear made me a big believer in the shaping power of jackets. When in doubt, I always throw a blazer over something. And a jacket upgrades denim to work-wear. What's a clothing item that you think is instantly transformative?

Absolutely the blazer. There is nothing like the power of a structured jacket. It can make anything look authoritative. I will argue it's the power of the trinity—a third piece always adds the period to the end of a sentence. It sculpts an outfit into looking deliberate. Wearing a great tailored jacket transforms the casual into something a little bit more formal, the same way denim can create something trendy out of something more mundane.

Did you and Clinton [Kelly, her co-host] ever disagree about trends, or certain looks, or how you would make something over?

No, not really. We would argue maybe over, "I think this color's better than that color." To argue about whether or not one of us likes a sleeve better, or a color, that's a question of personal taste. You really can't argue taste. For me to say my taste is better than yours doesn't actually make any sense. There's no grounds for that. We always tried to keep our conversations more technical, so that if somebody said, "but I love this," we could look at why. Is it a sentimental reason? Is it because it's comfortable? Well, what do you mean by comfortable? Physically, it feels comfortable, or emotionally, it's a safety blanket? We would get to that reason. Then we would say technically why something didn't flatter them, and then give them an alternative. That's the big thing. The show was criticized in the beginning on the grounds that Clinton and I were so mean, and were telling people they looked like crap. But I've always believed that the difference between criticism and constructive criticism is the option of an alternative. If I tell you you look like shit, I better have something to show you that is going to prove that I can make you look better. If I don't have a better alternative, then I have no business opening my mouth.

What are your plans after the show ends?

Right now, I am busy expanding Style for Hire. We're national right now, but we only have about 150 stylists, and there are 900 people on the waiting list. I'm doing seminars in Dallas, Atlanta, and New York. I also have a production company, so right now I have four new shows—none of which I would be on—in development.

Are they all style related?

No, none are style related, strangely, but they all have to do with women's empowerment.